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Personnel

The Isotope Geology Laboratory is directed by Dr. Mark Schmitz, Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences. His research interests encompass an understanding of the processes associated with the tectonic, geochemical, and thermal evolution of the continental lithosphere through isotope geology and geochronology, as well as the application of high precision geochronology to constraining paleoclimatic and paleobiological events and processes in the stratigraphic record. More information on his research and teaching program can be found on his faculty website.

Dr. James Crowley, Research Geochemist, maintains the clean chemistry and mass spectrometry laboratories and trains students and visiting scholars in all aspects of isotope geochemistry and mass spectrometry.

Dr. Crowley earned his B.A. in Geology from Amherst College, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His main research interests are: (1) Integration of high-precision geochronology, paleontology, and stratigraphy to determine the age of major events for life. For example, dating the end-Permian mass extinction through U-Pb analysis of zircon from volcanic ash beds, with the goal of determining the cause of the extinction. (2) Developing techniques necessary to produce temporal constraints with uncertainties of better than 0.1%, including production of tracer solutions and characterization of zircon age standards that are being distributed worldwide for the purposes of inter-laboratory calibration. (3) Obtaining high-precision dates from small fragments of accessory minerals (zircon, monazite, titanite) that were characterized for composition and zoning by micro-beam methods. Examples of the goals of this work are determining rates of silicic magma generation and the timing of metamorphic events.

Debbie Pierce, Laboratory Technical Manager, maintains the mineral separation and rock preparation laboratories. Debbie also manages the undergraduate research associates, and trains all students and visiting scholars in mineral separations and geochemical sample preparation.

Debbie earned her B.S. in Geology from Boise State University in 2000, and has over 15 years of experience in geochemical and paleontological preparation methods.

Dr. Corey Wall, Post-doctoral Research Associate, joined the IGL research team in October 2016.

Dr. Wall earned his B.Sc. Honors in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) and the Ph.D. from the same institution, working under Dr. James Scoates in the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research. During his dissertation Corey studied the detailed construction of Archean layered mafic intrusions using high-precision U-Pb geochronology within a petrologic and stratigraphic context.

At Boise State, Corey is pursuing studies of ion emitter chemistry and enhanced ionization efficiency, tectonomagmatism of the Early Cambrian Oklahoma Aulacogen large igneous province, and the integration of zircon geochemistry and rhyolite-MELTS modeling of silicic magma petrogenesis.